VI. Travels of an Englishman in Tartary, in 1243
VII. Sketch of the Revolutions in Tartary
VIII. Travels of John de Piano Carpini, in 1246
IX. Travels of W. de Rubruquis, about 1253
X. Travels of Haitho, Prince of Armenia, in 1254
XI. Travels of Marco Polo into China and the East; from A.D. 1260 to 1295
XII. Travels of Oderic of Portenau, in 1318
XIII. Travels of Sir John Mandeville, in 1322
XIV. Itinerary of Pegoletti, between Asof and China, in 1355
XV. Voyages of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, in 1380
XVI. Travels of Schildtberger, in 1394
XVII. Travels of the Ambassadors of Shah Rokh, in 1419
XVIII. Voyage and Shipwreck of Quirini, in 1431
XIX. Travels of Josaphat Barbaro, in 1436
[1] By error of the press, Sect, IV. has been numerically repeated.
* * * * *
[Transcriber's note: The following errata have been applied to the text.]
ERRATA.
Page 8, line 26, for insulated read inhabited
51, 21, for phenomena read phenomenon
62, 41, after each insert of the
118 33, after thirteenth insert century
165, note 7, for Keander read Theander.
A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
PART I.
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF DISCOVERY, FROM THE ERA OF ALFRED, KING OF ENGLAND,
IN THE NINTH CENTURY; TO THE ERA OF DON HENRY, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL, AT THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
PART I.
Voyages and Travels of Discovery, from the era of Alfred, King of
England, in the ninth century; to the era of Don Henry, Prince of Portugal,
at the commencement of the fifteenth century.
CHAP. I.
Discoveries in the time of Alfred King of England, in the ninth century
of the Christian era.
INTRODUCTION.
In the midst of the profound ignorance and barbarism which overspread the
nations of Western Europe, after the dissolution of the Roman empire in the
West, a transient ray of knowledge and good government was elicited by the
singular genius of the great Alfred, a hero, legislator, and philosopher,
among a people nearly barbarous. Not satisfied with having delivered his
oppressed and nearly ruined kingdom from the ravages of the almost savage
Danes and Nordmen, and the little less injurious state of anarchy and
disorganization into which the weakness of the vaunted Anglo-Saxon system
of government had plunged England, he for a time restored the wholesome
dominion of the laws, and even endeavoured to illuminate his ignorant
people by the introduction of useful learning. In the prosecution of these
patriotic views, and for his own amusement and instruction, besides other
literary performances, he made a translation of the historical work of
Orosius into his native Anglo-Saxon dialect; into which he interwove the
relations of Ohthere and Wulfstan, of which hereafter, and such other
information as he could collect respecting the three grand divisions of the
world then known; insomuch, that his account of Europe especially differs
very materially from that of Orosius, of which he only professed to make a
translation.
Although Alfred only mounted the throne of England in 872, it has been
deemed proper to commence the series of this work with the discovery of
Iceland by the Nordmen or Norwegians, about the year 861, as intimately
connected with the era which has been deliberately chosen as the best
landmark of our proposed systematic History and Collection of Voyages and
Travels. That entirely accidental incident is the earliest geographical
discovery made by the modern nations, of which any authentic record now
remains, and was almost the only instance of the kind which occurred, from
the commencement of the decline of the Roman power, soon after the
Christian era, for nearly fourteen centuries. And as the colonization of
Iceland did not begin till A.D. 878, the insertion of this circumstance in
the present place, can hardly be considered as at all deviating from the
most rigid principles of our plan.
SECTION I
Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians in the Ninth Century[1].
It were foreign to our present object to attempt any delineation of the
piratical, and even frequently conquering expeditions of the various
nations of Scandinavia, who, under the names of Angles, Saxons, Jutes,
Danes, and Normans, so long harassed the fragments of the Roman empire.
About the year 861, one Naddod, a Nordman or Norwegian vikingr, or chief of
a band of freebooters, who, during a voyage to the Faro islands, was thrown
by a storm upon the eastern coast of an unknown country, considerably
beyond the ordinary course of navigation, to which he gave the significant
name of Snio-land, or Snow-land, from the immense quantities of snow which
every where covered its numerous lofty mountains, even in the height of
summer, and filled its many valleys during a long and dreary winter. As
Naddod gave a rather favourable account of his discovery on his return to
Norway, one Gardar Suafarson, of Swedish origin, who was settled in Norway,
determined upon making an expedition to Snow-land in 864; and having
circumnavigated the whole extent of this new discovery, he named it from
himself, Gardars-holm, or Gardars-island.
Gardar employed so long a time in this expedition, that, not deeming it
safe to navigate the northern ocean during the storms of winter, he
remained on the island until the ensuing spring, when he sailed for Norway.
He there reported, that though the island was entirely covered with wood,
it was, in other respects, a fine country. From the favourable nature of
this report, one Flocke, the son of Vigvardar, who had acquired great
reputation among the Nordmen or Normans, as an experienced and intrepid
vikingr or pirate, resolved to visit the newly-discovered island. Flocke
likewise wintered in the northern part of the island, where he met with
immense quantities of drift ice, from which circumstance he chose to give
it the name of Iceland, which it still bears.
